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More women in Canadian politics urgently needed: Hepburn

Canadian women still on the outside of the 'old boy's club' of elected politics.

Anne McLellan, a highly respected former federal Liberal cabinet minister, is calling for a new national women’s movement, one that will focus on attracting more females to federal, provincial and municipal politics. (Ron Bull / Toronto Star file photo)

By some measures, women are making huge gains when it comes to elected politics in Canada.

Currently, five provinces and one territory representing 85 per cent of Canada’s total population are governed by women premiers and a record high of 76 women were elected to Parliament in the last federal election in 2011, including a record 18 women under the age of 40.

That’s an amazing turnaround from even a few years ago when there wasn’t a single woman premier in the country and the number of women elected to Parliament was actually falling.

Unfortunately, the applause over these recent gains is actually masking a troubling trend that sees fewer women — not more — being elected to public office.

In Tuesday’s provincial election in Nova Scotia, only 44 of the 176 candidates were women. Just two weeks ago, voters in St. John’s, the capital of Newfoundland, elected an all-male city council. In Edmonton, it appears not a single woman will win a seat on city council in the Oct. 21 municipal election. And currently, a woman is the mayor of only four of Canada’s 25 largest cities.

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At the same time, despite a record-setting showing in the 2011 federal election, women still only hold 25 per cent of the 308 seats in Parliament while comprising 52 per cent of the Canadian population.

It all smacks of politics still being dominated by the culture of an “old boys’ club.”

This is why Anne McLellan, a highly respected former federal Liberal cabinet minister, is calling for a new national women’s movement, one that will focus on attracting more females to federal, provincial and municipal politics.

Women are frustrated, angry and dismayed by the lack of effort by all parties, including the Liberals, when it comes to achieving gender equality, she believes.

“We must start to take possession of the public square. We must do it with a renewed sense of urgency,” McLellan told more than 700 people, mainly women, packed into a Toronto hotel ballroom earlier this week for a 7 a.m. breakfast meeting organized by the Women’s Legal Education and Action Fund to mark Persons Day.

Since she lost her Edmonton riding seat in 2006, McLellan has championed the drive to get more women elected to public office.

She calls the gap between the number of men and women in elected institutions of power “a democratic deficit” that affects the lives of all women.

That needs to change.

It’s important to have more women in politics for several reasons, including the simple issue of a lack of justice and fairness when women are so under-represented in the institutions that formulate laws and programs that affect their lives. That’s especially true when it comes to areas that concern women far more than men, such as child care, pay equity, health care and family violence, McLellan argues.

So why aren’t women jumping into politics?

First, women, who are generally the main caregivers for their kids, are worried about a work-life balance if they win election and spend much of their time in Ottawa or a provincial capital, McLellan says.

Second, the overly polarizing, bullying and confrontational culture of politics doesn’t appeal to most women. To them, politics is seen as a “man’s game” that they don’t like. But McLellan says “it won’t get better if we women don’t run and win in sufficient numbers to change it.”

Third, the media is harder on female politicians than it is on males, often focusing more on appearance than substance. At times, it can even be downright abusive, as Belinda Stronach learned when she switched from the Conservative to Liberal parties. No woman wants to put her reputation on the line if that’s how she’s going to be treated.

Still, McLellan believes it is possible to attract young, eager and talented women to politics.

To do that, she suggests party leaders must truly care about the issue and they must drive that message down through the party structure. She also calls for active mentoring of young political hopefuls as well as early and dedicated recruitment programs.

Ultimately, McLellan feels that only women — not well-intentioned men by themselves — can change the culture of politics at the federal, provincial and local levels.

“This will be hard work,” she admits. “We need to convincingly make the case that what happens in our elected councils and legislatures is about, and does directly affect, women’s daily lives.”

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